


Dual Sport Athlete

by ReachFor24



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Cross Sport Rivalries, Developing Relationship, Fuckbuddies, Little Love for the LAX Bros, M/M, No Smut, fuckbuddies to lovers?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29046657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReachFor24/pseuds/ReachFor24
Summary: Hockey players haven't always played hockey. Bitty tried football and fell in love with figure skating. Shitty probably played soccer well enough to have the requisite footwork to attempt some tricks (before a ball hurtles to someone's face). Someone else must have played another sport. Maybe even well enough to be a dual sport athlete in high school.
Relationships: Chad(s) (Check Please!)/Connor "Whiskey" Whisk
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Dual Sport Athlete

Whiskey is in a good mood. He’s killing it on the ice, on a 6-game points streak starting with the first game of the season. He’s doing better in his classwork than last year, understanding his accounting homework now that he actually knows what he’s learning in class. And he won’t tell his friends on the lacrosse team, but he likes Chad L a lot better than last year’s captain. Chad W’s an asshole. 

Well, he’ll tell Chad L that. They’ve been fuck buddies since last spring. Plus, he’d agree, Chad W hated Whiskey for the same reasons the hockey team hates the lacrosse guys. Old-school intraschool sports rivalries. 

Petty bullshit, but Whiskey wasn’t going to single-handedly change that. At least Chad L has a damn good chance of being captain for his senior year next year. Maybe he can convince whoever gets captainship after Bitty to relax the tensions between the teams. 

Oh yeah, Bitty. 

Whiskey feels his mood sour as he remembers his captain. Mother hens past the point of it being a fault, seemingly always in a good mood, and only taking his baking seriously. 

Whiskey winces to himself, knowing better than that though. He remembers Bitty’s tiredness last fall, halfway dead on the ice during some practices. He remembers the long nights Bitty has had to finish his schoolwork, Whiskey himself at the Haus late talking to Holster to understand his own homework. Though he still holds that Bitty needs to let his teammates breathe outside the realm of ‘Bitty’. Always sticking his nose where it’s not necessarily needed, even if the rest of the team seems to welcome it. 

Whiskey internally sighs, knowing he should be less dismissive of his captain. He’s a hell of a skater with soft hands. He could go pro if he wanted to, though Whiskey doubts he’d be first-line material. Probably peaking around the third or fourth lines, after some time in the AHL for extended development. Still better than a lot of skaters they’ve faced so far this year, that’s for sure. 

Though Whiskey knows the main reason he bristles from Bitty is his vocal opinion of the lacrosse guys, echoing an apparent motto for them commonly: “Fuck the LAX bros!” Even when he’s schwasted off Ollie’s and Wick’s tub juice (which Whiskey swears gets him drunker than Ransom’s and Holster’s recipe last year, somehow), Bitty will utter the phrase with the rest of the Hausmates. 

He’d avoid the Haus if he could. But he tried that last year and was thoroughly chirped for it by the seniors. As such, with a plan to study in the Haus kitchen (and kind of craving a baked good, though he’d prefer it wasn’t pie this time), Whiskey gets up from Chad L’s bed, giving him a kiss goodbye as he studies at his desk before grabbing his backpack and sauntering across the street. 

Reaching the Haus, Whiskey walks in and takes the decrepit building in. 

Hops and Louis are playing Smash as River reads, all in the living room. From the Swedish muttering and swearing, Hops is winning again. Nursey is just starting to come down the stairs, his cast still fresh from the fall during the last game. Last Whiskey heard Nursey will be out til spring semester. That’s going to suck, with Dex having get used to another defenseman partner the past couple practices, both missing more passes than normal. He’ll adjust though, Dex is a damn good defenseman. 

And as Whiskey enters the kitchen, he finds a familiar sight; Bitty is pulling out another pie (smelling like yet another maple apple pie) as Tango and Dex are studying at the kitchen table. Based on the smudge of flour on his face, Dex was playing bakers assistant before the pie went into the oven. 

With a general greeting from the Haus, Whiskey sat down at the kitchen table, pulling out his Philosophy gen-ed to study with Tango. Appropriate that Tango, one of his best friends even with his inquisitive nature, would major in answering life’s questions. 

Soon after pulling his Philosophy textbook, Nursey burst into the kitchen, taking exaggerated sniffs of the air. But instead of commenting on Bitty’s cooling baking creating, Nursey went for a chirp. “I smell LAX bro. Whiskey, hanging out with those assholes again?” 

Nursey must have been on the Reading Room, watching as he walked across the street. Normally, Whiskey would just glare at him before ignoring everyone else. Or he’d just leave and head back to his dorm. But this time, he stood his ground in his own way. Going for nonchalance, Whiskey answers “Yeah, they’re not bad.” 

He and Tango continued on Whiskey’s homework, about to launch into Medieval philosophers, before the interruptions by the rest of the people in the kitchen began. Dex and Nursey, in a unison that rivaled Ransom and Holster, even if they won’t admit it, bellow out “Fuck the LAX bros!” as Bitty whip them with a kitchen towel. Even if he’s smiling at their antics and muttering the declaration himself. 

After calming down Nursey and Dex, Bitty turn towards Whiskey and began his normal rambling “Oh honey, bless your heart if you think they’re not bad. They’re the _LAX bros_ , they’re always up to no good.” 

If he was inclined to do so, Whiskey would point out how, changing the name of the group, that exact sentence could be any number of phobics. Change the group to ‘gays’, it’s homophobic. Change the group to ‘blacks’ or any other minority, it’s racist. 

Instead, Whiskey rolls his eyes and go for something that’ll probably scandalize his southern captain. “Lacrosse isn’t that different from hockey, if you think about it. Little less physical maybe.” 

Bitty began sputtering at the comparison as Nursey looked gobsmacked at the perceived insult. Dex, noticing Nursey’s utter lack of chill, began laughing. Tango must have everyone tuned out though, deep in his book on pre-Islamic philosophy, waiting until it quieted down to continue helping Whiskey with his work. 

Whiskey ended up being wrong about Tango’s engrossment into his own book as he hears him respond first, eyes not leaving the book. “He’s not wrong. Goalies in front of a small net, both use their body for checking, both accrue penalties in similar ways: slashing, cross checking, tripping, offsides, etc. Penalties are basically ‘time outs’ for the player. Both wear pads on their shoulders for safety. Just one’s stick has a net and uses that for passing instead of letting it slide on the surface.” With that said, Tango turns the page, seemingly reading the whole time he was making the comparison. 

After a few awkward moments, Bitty asks Tango a question. “Tango, honey. Why do you know so much about lacrosse?” 

Without looking up from his book, Tango answers. “Dual sport athlete. Hockey in the winter, lacrosse in the spring. Had scholarship offers for lacrosse at UNC, Syracuse, and Samwell. But only Samwell offered a full ride for hockey, and I liked the ice better. My summers were in the rink, not out on a field.” 

This time, Whiskey shared the incredulous look with the Hausmates in the kitchen, shocked by this information. It may pass by Dex, Nursey, and Bitty, but thanks to Chad L, Whiskey knew how big the offers from UNC and Syracuse are. They’re two of the out-of-conference games all the lacrosse guys worry about, tops in the NCAA. Hell, UNC just won the national title last year, an OT thriller against Maryland. UNC and Syracuse share 16 national championships and a total of 23 finals appearances (he’ll have to ‘thank’ Chad L for this random fact apparently being memorized). 

Quickly though, they all recover from their shock, Bitty passing out slices of pie as everyone got to studying or working on homework. 

*******

It was a few days later, after a game where Whiskey extended his points streak in a game much closer than needed, after making his requested appearance at the post-game kegster before ducking out and going across the street to Chad L’s bedroom, where the news of Tango’s past flitted in his mind again. Laying in Chad L’s bed post-coital, Whiskey speaks up. 

“Hey man, weird question, but do you know a Tony Tangredi? Would have been a recruit you-” 

Before Whiskey could finish his clarification though, Chad L interrupts him. “Tangredi? Fuck yeah man! Fucking beast on the field, one of the best attackers in the nation that year, even if he didn’t play lacrosse. Why?” 

Whiskey grinned at Chad L’s enthusiasm before answering. “He’s a teammate of mine. Second-line winger.” 

Chad L eyes blinked a few times, processing this, before busting out in laughter. “You’re fucking with me, right? Good one, Conner.” 

With an eyeroll, Whiskey pulls out his phone, pulling up a recent selfie with him, Tango, and Foxtrot, shoving the phone to Chad L. As Chad L looks at the photo, Whiskey sees the moment he recognizes him. “Holy fuck he’s here?” 

“Yep” is all Whiskey could respond with, taking his phone back and placing it on the nightstand by the bed. 

“Can I meet him?” Whiskey couldn’t hide his smile at Chad L’s fanboy nature for Tango as he responds. “We can probably sneak into the kegster and you can say ‘Hi’ now.” 

Whiskey was openly laughing at how quickly his fuckbuddy jumps out of bed, throwing on a pair of jeans and a tee (thankfully not a lacrosse tee, as he’d get kicked out pretty quickly for that) in seconds. Whiskey took his time, appreciating Chad L’s ass in those jeans before getting himself ready, wearing the SMH hoodie he got his freshman year. 

Soon, they were outside, sneaking into the Haus through the back door, blending in with the crowd as they head towards the front of the Haus. They pass River wheeling a girl and Hops excitedly talking about something to another partier until they find Tango. By himself near the steps, his near-permanent grin broad on his face. 

“Hey Tango” Whiskey says, catching Tango’s attention. 

“Hey Whiskey! Thought you left already.” 

“I did, but someone wanted to meet you.” With that, Whiskey sidesteps and waves Chad L forward. 

As Chad L takes Whiskey’s old position, he hears Chad L launch into praises of Tango’s high school lacrosse. He sees how Tango slightly blushes at the praise, but recovers quickly, both falling deep into a conversation on lacrosse. 

Whiskey tunes out the conversation, just watching Chad L’s and Tango’s faces and body language. Quickly though, his focus shifts to just Chad L, openly staring at him as he continues a very animated conversation with Tango. 

Whiskey may not want to be out, especially as he has a good chance at the NHL, but he might just risk everything to date this lacrosse-playing boy. 

**Author's Note:**

> A decent number of US high school athletes will play multiple sports, given the various sport seasons. Figured to play with that, and make Tango a dual sport athlete (I was gonna make it Whiskey, but the fic came out more organically from me with a dual-sport Tango for whatever reason). He just happened to play the two sports that rival each other at Samwell, go figure!
> 
> Also, I totally headcanon Tango as a Philosophy major. He asks so many questions, I just think he asks 'big' questions too, and uses his major to help answer them.


End file.
